Changing America

The first thing you notice is the peacefulness. The Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site sits on the banks of the Pedernales River in the hill country of Gillespie County, Texas. It’s the home of the LBJ Ranch, once known as the Texas White House during Johnson’s years as president from November, 1963 until January, 1969. The site is over 730 acres. It also includes a working cattle ranch, Johnson’s boyhood home, the one room school house he attended, and a family gravesite.  The most tranquil spot was the family cemetery which included two large head stones over the graves of the former president and Lady Bird Johnson surrounded by smaller head stones marking the graves of family members, including Johnson’s parents. The graves are shaded by giant Live Oak trees. Their branches form a canopy over the graves that sit right along the banks of the river that Johnson drew strength from every time he visited the ranch. It defines the saying “Rest in Peace” for a man who was described “as a force of nature” and who held office during one of the most trubulent times in American history. Johnson was instrumental in some of greatest decisions in the 2oth century, and some of the worst.

Before you get to the house, you can look inside a twin engine jet known as Air Force One-Half. It was a twin engine jet Johnson used to fly right onto the ranch from an Air Force base in San Antonio where Air Force One would land from Washington. He just couldn’t get a runway long enough on the ranch for the big plane. The house was much simpler than I expected. It was like stepping back into the 1960s. The furnishings were as they were during Johnson’s presidency. Johnson and Lady Bird had their own bedrooms, so if Johnson was on making or taking calls, he wouldn’t disturb her. And he loved the telephone. He had phones in almost every room. While Kennedy may have been the first television president, Johnson was the first president to have three television sets in his bedroom and the Oval Office so he could watch the news on the three broadcast networks, which during the Vietnam War brought him news that tormented him.

Johnson took office on one of the worst days in American history after Kennedy was shot down in the middle of Johnson’s beloved Texas while Johnson rode behind him in Dealey Plaza. That news was brought home to the ranch as it was to most Americans, a sudden shock in the middle of an ordinary day. As we toured the kitchen of the ranch, the guide pointed out a replica of pecan pie sitting on top of the stove. The Johnsons were going to have President Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy, and Texas Governor John Connelly  and his wife to the ranch that night for a barbecue. One of the kitchen staff had just taken a pecan pie out of the oven when the bulletin flashed on the little black and white TV on a shelf that the president had been shot. The kitchen clock still stands at one o’clock when the news came that Kennedy was dead. A Secret Service agent came into the kitchen, and told the staff, “You are now in the home of the president of the United States.” Johnson always came back to the ranch to renew his spirit and relieve the enormous pressure that came with the job he once sought, but was thrust upon him with the suddenness of a rifle shot.

We also visited the Johnson Library on the University of Texas campus in Austin which shows all Johnson’s accomplishments and his greatest failure. Johnson pushed through legislation that effects almost every American even today. His Great Society brought us the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, public broadcasting, immigration reform, education reform. He reduced the poverty rate by half while in office. But, of course, his conduct of the Vietnam War overshadowed his great accomplishments. Johnson was tormented by the war, and agonized over the escalation which he seemed incapable of stopping, and finding a way out. History shows he was given terrible advice by both his military and civilian advisors. Both they and he misunderstood the history and culture of the Vietnamese people who saw us as invaders not saviors. As he kept pursuing a doomed policy, he lost the trust and faith of the American people. Those years changed the course of history, and changed the way Americans look at their leaders and each other.

Johnson was president during my teenage years. I remember thinking how different he was from Kennedy. Kennedy was the young, cool guy. Johnson seemed like an old man with glasses who spoke in the slow Texas drawl. I was more aware of the war protests, the civil rights demonstrations, and not wanting to have to go fight in Vietnam. The Johnson years teach us how fallible leaders make choices that we all have to live with, and even die for.